The Chinese yuan, as well as the Australian dollar, slipped contrary to the U.S. dollar on Tuesday in Asia following a release of weaker-than-expected data.
The USD/CNY pair traded slightly lower at 7.1160 by 1:10 AM ET (05:10 GMT). Government data showed the country’s producer price index fell 0.8% in August from the year earlier, its worst year-on-year contraction in 3 years.
The People's Bank of China slice the sum of money that banks must hold as reserves on Friday.
Around the Sino-U.S. trade front, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox television within an interview that there have been “plenty of progress” on the U.S.-China trade deal and that the U.S. is “ready to negotiate.”
The positive development sent the yen down contrary to the dollar because the USD/JPY pair rose 0.2% to 107.39.
The AUD/USD pair slipped 0.1% to 0.6858 following a survey made by the National Australia Bank (NAB) showed the country’s business sentiment slumped to at least one from 4 in August.
“It appears like the tax cuts experienced little effect on household consumption or haven't been large enough to offset increasing weakness,” said Alan Oster, NAB’s chief economist. “Both rate cuts also could have had little impact, though that is expected using the longer and much more variable lags of monetary policy.”
The conditions index, which measures hiring, profits, was also right down to 1 from the prior 3.
The euro was holding steady at 1.1043 contrary to the U.S. dollar as investors awaited a European Central Bank meeting later this week of which new stimulus is expected.
The GBP/USD pair slipped 0.1% to at least one 1.2340, pressured lower by Brexit uncertainty. Britain's parliament voted, needlessly to say, to hinder Prime Minister Boris Johnson's bid for an early on the election.